Dipika and Kiran Dodhia

A LONG-STANDING stationery shop in Holloway Road has been forced into making the “difficult” decision to close after rising rents and business costs made it “unaffordable” to continue.

Kiran Dodhia and his wife Dipika have run the beloved Holloway Stationers and Bookshop in Holloway Road for 14 years, but will retire at the end of this month.

Due to ongoing financial difficulties, the couple had been paying subsidised rental rates since the Covid lockdown. Their landlord sold the property last year to next door dentist N7 Dental Care, who said the rent would be increased by 30 per cent, in line with market rates, if the the couple chose to stay.

Mr Dodhia said that despite negotiations with N7 Dental Care, they couldn’t agree on a subsidised rental agreement, and so accepted an offer of four months rent-free before giving up the lease.

He told the Tribune: “We feel sad that we are closing the shop. Every day since we announced our closure I’ve had regular customers coming in, giving us sympathy and telling us how much they’ll miss having us in the area.

“We have a good relationship with N7 Dental Care as they’ve become our landlords. They wanted to expand their shop into ours and so they acquired the property. And as new owner of the building, that means they can ask for a new rent, market rent. A 30 per cent rent increment on top of all our other costs, it’s a lot, and I don’t think this type of shop can sustain it.

“We tried to look for another place but the rents are so high every­where, so we made the difficult decision just to retire. It’s the best thing.”

Holloway Stationers and Bookshop

He added: “Things are hard for small businesses. We’ve moved towards an American-system where everything is bought online, and the govern­ment is encouraging people to shop more online as opposed to Europe, where people still go into shops.”

Mr Dodhia said that since the first lockdown, running an independent business in Holloway Road has proven difficult, but it was the relationship with his customers that made it worth pursuing.

He said that the area has been going “downhill” for some time, and that redevelopment was needed to make life easier for the businesses.

“There’s two sides to Holloway Road,” he said. “If you look at the end near Upper Street it’s good and it’s saturated with businesses that stay open late and are busy. But here, it’s gone downhill. There’s so much petty crime, phone theft and substance misuse issues.

“People used to come here for variety, small independent businesses like ours everywhere. But my customers tell me they avoid the area now because it’s not safe. I hope something drastic happens in the area to regenerate it.”

Mr Dodhia first moved to the UK from Kenya in 1972, and has run multiple businesses since the 1980s. He said despite feeling sad about closing the shop, he and Dipika will welcome having more time to enjoy the capital.

He said: “We’ve been working here six days a week, all the time for the last 14 years. When I retire, we will have more time to go sightseeing across London, maybe the museums and the London eye.”

A spokesperson for N7 Dental Care said: “We bought the property to expand our services due to high demand for NHS dental care in the area.

“What I understood was that due to the increasing cost and online presence the stationery shop was struggling for a while and they wanted to get out of the lease as soon as possible. There­fore, we offered them four months rent-free period to help them out with cash flow and agreed for them to terminate the lease prematurely.”